The Empire 152

'Immediate Impeachments: Preventing "The Guns of August" in Eurasia.

by Prof. Francis Boyle

Global Research, January 20, 2007

The Bush Jr. /Cheney refusal to obtain additional authorization from Congress for this substantial enlargement of U.S. armed forces in Iraq constitutes an impeachable offense under the terms of Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution for violating the Constitution’s War Powers Clause and Congress’s own War Powers ResolutionIf President Bush Jr. and Vice President Cheney are not stopped immediately by means of impeachment, they could readily set off World War III in the volatile Middle East, Persian Gulf and Central Asia, where two-thirds of the world’s hydrocarbon resources are up for grabs among the United States, Russia, China, and India. The Guns of August indeed.O n the evening of 10 January 2007 in a nationally televised address to the American people from the White House, President Bush Jr. announced that he was going to “surge” an additional 21,500 U.S. troops into Iraq. Both President Bush Jr. and Vice President Cheney also made it perfectly clear that they would initiate this “surge” against the manifest will of the American people expressed in the U.S. national elections of November 2006 and without obtaining authorization by the U.S. Congress. Both President Bush Jr. and Vice President Cheney invoked the President’s alleged powers as Commander in Chief of U.S. armed forces under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution as authority for their unilaterally determined “surge”. But that provision was put into the Constitution for the purpose of guaranteeing the supremacy of civilian control over the U.S. military establishment . The Constitution made it clear in Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 that only both Houses of the United States Congress acting together had the power “To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.” This is popularly known as the War Powers Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Pursuant to its constitutional power under this War Powers Clause, and acting in order to prevent another Vietnam War, Congress enacted into law the 1973 War Powers Resolution [For full text see Annex below] over the veto by President Richard Nixon, which means that it was adopted by at least a two-thirds favorable vote in both the House and the Senate . In specific respect to the 10 January 2007 “surge” of 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq, the War Powers Resolution explicitly requires that President Bush Jr. obtain additional authorization from Congress before going forward with the “surge,” which he did nonetheless unilaterally. Section 4(a) (3) makes it quite clear that the requirements of the War Powers Resolution are triggered: “In the absence of a declaration of war [which we do not have for Iraq], in any case in which United States Armed Forces are introduced … (3) in numbers which substantially enlarge United States Armed Forces equipped for combat already located in a foreign nation . . .” [see below]At the time we had about 132,000 troops in Iraq. Sending in an additional 21,500 troops would “substantially enlarge” those armed forces. Therefore, the Bush Jr. Administration required further authorization from Congress for this euphemistic “surge,” which is really a substantial escalation. The Bush Jr. /Cheney refusal to obtain additional authorization from Congress for this substantial enlargement of U.S. armed forces in Iraq constitutes an impeachable offense under the terms of Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution for violating the Constitution’s War Powers Clause and Congress’s own War Powers Resolution. (Editor: emphasis added)The same constitutional arguments apply to the Bush Jr. Administration’s proposed substantial enlargement of U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan by one combat brigade of about 3,500 U.S. troops on top of the 21,000 U.S. soldiers already there.'

Lees verder: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=BOY20070120&articleId=4528